page_title: Horn & Hardart
section_title: Decline
hierarchical_section_title: Horn & Hardart / Decline
caption_attribution_description: Postcard photo of the Horn &amp; Hardart automat on 57th Street in New York City.
context_page_description: Horn & Hardart was a food services company in the United States noted for operating the first food service automats in Philadelphia and New York City.
  Philadelphia's Joseph Horn and German-born, New Orleans-raised Frank Hardart opened their first restaurant together in Philadelphia, on December 22, 1888. The small lunchroom at 39 South Thirteenth Street had no tables, only a counter with 15 stools. The location had housed the print shop of Dunlap & Claypoole, printers to the American Congress and George Washington.
  By introducing Philadelphia to New Orleans-style coffee, which Hardart promoted as their "gilt-edge" brew, they made their tiny luncheonette a local attraction. News of the coffee spread, and the business flourished. They incorporated as the Horn & Hardart Baking Company in 1898.
context_section_description: The restaurant chain remained popular into the 1960s, featuring not only automats but sit-down waitress service restaurants, cafeterias, and bakery shops. In the late 1960s, consultants attempted to develop automats with interior decoration relevant to surrounding neighborhoods; thus, the Automat on 14th Street was decorated with psychedelic posters. The eateries began to close with the rise of fast-food restaurants, served over the counter and with more payment flexibility than traditional automats. By the mid-1970s, at some locations, Burger King franchises replaced the automats. Horn & Hardart further expanded its fast food operations in 1981, with its acquisition of the Bojangles' Famous Chicken n' Biscuits restaurants, which it sold to a California investment company in 1990 for $20 million.
  In 1979, Horn & Hardart agreed to buy the Royal Inn in Las Vegas for $7.4 million. By late 1980, the sale had been completed, and the property was rebranded as the Royal Americana Hotel, with a New York theme. A $3.5 million renovation increased the room count to 300. By 1982 though, the hotel was experiencing substantial losses, and Horn & Hardart decided to close it. They reportedly agreed that December to sell the property to an investment group for $15.4 million.
  The last New York Horn & Hardart Automat (on the southeast corner of 42nd Street and Third Avenue) closed in April 1991. Horn & Hardart continued to own a catalog division; it renamed itself Hanover Direct in 1993. That year the company bought Gump's; it sold it to an investment group in 2005. Hanover Direct purchased International Male in 1987 when founder Gene Burkard retired.
caption: Automat at 104 West 57th Street near Sixth Avenue showing areas for beverages and pies at right of dining area
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